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Published: 24 April 2006

Review of Mental Health Nursing

A major review of mental health nursing has been published by Health Minister Rosie Winterton and Chief Nursing Officer Christine Beasley.

The review recommends key actions needed for nurses to be able to improve the care of people with mental health problems, for example by providing more psychological therapies and by promoting physical wellbeing.

The review - From Values to Action - is the result of a major consultation exercise launched last year in the context of government reforms such as ‘Choosing Health’, ‘Delivering Race Equality’ and the draft Mental Health Bill.

The public consultation asked the question ‘how can mental health nursing best contribute to the care of service users in the future?’

In particular, it sought views as to how mental health nurses should contribute to a wide range of issues including:

· Services for people from black & ethnic minority groups

· The delivery of psychological therapies

· Health promotion and

· Meeting the needs of carers

The Department of Health received over 300 written responses to the consultation, the majority focusing on:

· the values of mental health nursing

· the need for holistic practice and

· to build an infrastructure that will support new developments

The CNO review also included an extensive literature review, which identified that service users & carers want MHNs to have positive human qualities, as well as a range of technical knowledge and skills.

Research shows that MHNs have the potential to use a range of evidence-based interventions, but that further development is needed for these skills to be routinely used in practice.

As the largest professional group in mental health services with nearly 47,000 qualified nurses working in the NHS in England and another 30,000 support staff working with them, mental health nurses play a vital role in delivering these reforms and it is important that their career structure reflects that.

Some key recommendations of the review were:

· Mental health Nurses (MHNs) should focus on the wider needs of the patient, using their skills to improve physical well-being through better assessment & health promotion activities and by providing more psychological therapies

· Inpatient care should be improved by increasing the time MHNs spend in direct clinical contact with service users and minimising the time they spend on administrative roles

· Career structures for MHNs should be reviewed according to local needs and a range of new nursing roles developed and supported

· MHNs should promote social inclusion for service users and their carers

· The recruitment and retention of MHNs needs to be improved through initiatives such as linking with schools and colleges and presenting positive messages about mental health to the media

Also published at the same time as the review was: Recruitment and retention of mental health nurses: Good practice guide. The purpose of this guide is to provide guidance & good practice examples to improve the recruitment and retention of mental health nurses.

Rosie Winterton said:

"Mental health nurses have always been a vital part of effective mental health services and in recent years they have played an absolutely key part in the ongoing transformation of mental health services.

The time is right to build on these improvements and to provide mental health nurses with a new direction and clear future role in order to deliver government reforms such as the Mental Health Bill, personalised care and choice.

As mental health nursing improves, service users will see the benefits."

Christine Beasley said:

"This report aims to help mental health nurses, their organisations and professional leaders put in place the practical changes that will make a difference to service users.

I want this review to be used on the ground to shape everyday practice wherever care is given to mental health service users and their families”.

National director for mental health Professor Louis Appleby said:

"Mental health nursing is at the heart of modern healthcare.

Through the development of new roles, such as prescribing, and new skills in areas such as physical wellbeing, mental health nurses are at the forefront of changes in how services provide for the needs of people with mental health problems.

All mental health professionals are having to rethink the part they will play in the services of the future. This report sets out an optimistic and ambitious vision of a confident and responsive nursing profession."

The recommendations included in this review show what needs to be done to develop the mental health nursing profession over the next 10 years.

A research evaluation project will identify progress and ways in which successful implementation can happen and it is anticipated that stakeholder organisations that contributed to From values to action will together review ‘developments to date’ during 2008.

Further information

From Values to Action: The Chief Nursing Officer’s review of mental health nursing

Summary version